Been in business for 5 years Not for profit Competitive salary 30 day probation prior to benefits Benefits health dental Insurance package choices. Caring staff provide extra visits to patients via care plans with regards to CNA's +1x RN visit. Don't use weekend triage. Every call gets a visit.

Cons

ED New to Arizona not well connected to the community. Doesn't help to capture the referral market. Needs better leadership. In rebuilding mode. High staff turn over of all positions, makes it difficult to form a tight team spirit. Constantly having to learn new staff. Always in training mode. High expectations of all staff

Advice to Management

Stronger leadership involvement in NHO Serve on boards to help facilitate the knowledge & the presence of Grace Hospice in the community to create awareness & opportunity for referrals. Participating in Community engagements to develop greater awareness.

not too much to speak of, the benefits and time off is way behind the times. No real leadership - focus is more on "coaching sessions" and disciplinary actions than fostering autonomy.

Cons

Pay close attention to these items: **Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in nursing preferred (ask what experience and education the person you will be reporting to has.) **Able to handle multiple and shifting assignments (red flag - means there may not be a set job description and you may be doing more than 1 or 2 jobs because of staff retention issues). **Be available at all times, either in person or telephonically (see above). Also - ask what their staff retention is and how many experienced nurses have been fired or quit. Ask what experience their current nurses have. Do they have a dedicated on call staff for evenings and weekends? Inquire as to why they are in Troy instead of Ann Arbor - are there medicare issues and deficiencies?

My time at Grace Hospice revealed to me a lack of knowledge and leadership from the top. There is little to no training of any new employees. Expectations and procedures change constantly (above average even for healthcare). The company shows little concern for maintaining effective and productive employees. Relationships with outside agencies are made difficult because of payment policies from U.S. Medical Management, the parent company. The company is run on the fly. Decisions are made reactionary vs. proactively. The company says they want to be the BEST in hospice care, but they haven't seemed to define what the best looks like. Since they have not defined what the best looks like, they do not train employees to meet expectations, encouraging and equipping them, rather they tear down and reprimand after mistakes have been made. They focus more on how to limit supplies to patients in order to save money rather than meeting the needs of patients as a first priority. They provide no funding to market to the region and rely on one referral source, a business approach bound to fail. Unless the company makes some major changes, I would stay away from Grace Hospice.

I think that working for a hospice organization allows you to provide excellent end of life care to families that need the support to get through a very difficult time in their lives. You get to travel to different locations to see your patients in which you will not get tired of the same scenery all the time. You are paid very well for your mileage for travel time. The pay is significantly more than working in a skilled nursing facility.

Cons

Whenever you need time off, you are given a hard time about it because it is tough to find someone to cover your patients while you are gone. Sometimes, the traveling can become too excessive.

Advice to Management

The advice that I can offer to management is to make sure that you have some qualified per diem workers available so that your regular full-time and part-time employees can take time off when needed. This way, their patients will be covered.